Customer Ratings & Reviews

Overall it’s okay. Sound is great but not that much better than other earbuds. The fit is okay on me. Too loose, keeps falling out. One ear just doesn’t sit right. Lots of connection issues where I’ll put it on and it just won’t connect. Or it’ll randomly loose connection. Not sure what the issue is but I’ll just get random beeping noises. Sometimes the beeps go on for a long period of time and I’m unsure what it is. The noise cancelling is good but not even close to the top tier.

You don't come to this class of product for the problems these have. ***QUALITY:*** Clearly, right from the gate you can tell these are quality. The weight, feel and textures tell you. Soft-touch? Check. Mem. foam? Check. GOLDEN metal? Check. Even the cord material which can be seen as you elongate the band is color-matching and woven. "Bowers & Wilkins" is machined (embossed) onto the side. These tell others you got something expensive. ***DESIGN:*** My particular set are "Royal Burgundy", and as such won't appeal to all, but as stated, give you that stand-out gold finish. The microphone ports are substantial, perforated grilles integrated into each earpiece. The left is sleek, with a single botton (ANC) and the right is topped by on/pairing, with textured play/pause sandwiched between up and down volume. Of any set of headphones, this is close to perfect for layout. The only improvement I could make is to move play over to the left so each button can be easily, quickly found (even when wearing gloves, please). ***FUNCTIONALITY:*** These have an exceptional feature no other headphones do: quick sounds to indicate connectivity and modes. All other sets I have tried consume media time with their prompts (you end up rewinding podcasts and videos). Bowers & Wilkins doesn't wish to interrupt. The set is very comfortable even when wearing a hat (quite adjustable) and can be stretched for a wider head (like I have). My medium-large ears are covered by the cuffs, which breathe acceptably well. The volume controls allow you to crank it way up, but... ***SOUND:*** only on Bluetooth. Curiously, plugging these in with USB-C to connect gives you substantially quieter listening - at least on my S23 Ultra. This is unfortunate because Bluetooth seems not to be the way to get the best fidelity. You get decent quality from this connection type, but the experience is let down by software which DEFINITELY could have been better. The details will be spoken about next, in ***SOFTWARE:*** 1.) For starters, the available settings here are WAYY outgunned by far cheaper kit. A brand like this should give you what you desire as a respecter of the finer things, but it doesn't. "Bass" and "treble" are the only "EQ" settings. They might as well be called"high" and "low", since you get no indication of frequency, curve, or decibel raise. This isn't good, as ultra-low frequency sound is too quiet when you get these. "Bass" in the app appears to adjust something like 100 hz - and that's not good enough for most recordings. "Treble" is okay, but seems to sound best when close to max, and that increases harsh 12k+ sounds too much in order to get 4-8k right. 2.) The app only let's you fiddle when it notices the PX8s, and that isn't consistent. I was listening to them once when it couldn't find them. An app kill and restart corrected it, but still. 3.) When you actually can fiddle, you get a choice to turn off the standby mode, so that's nice (like for falling asleep with music playing. They _didn't_ automatically connect most of the times I came back to them, however (like, when leaving the set on and walking away). 4.) Only ONE button is customizable - ONE - and that's only to select ANC mode or voice assistant. Nothing else. Fail, B&W. ***FIRMWARE:*** Another EXCELLENT feature is that the PX8s remember which ANC (active noise canceling) setting you last used. The ANC, by the way, is no-contest the best I've used... when it works right. Unfortunately, something about those "2 external microphones" doesn't. Driving in the car? Turn your head the wrong way and INTERFERENCE. Sitting in an air-conditioned space? Volume difference equals INTERFERENCE. A bit of wind on one side? Interference. For some reason, these things are HYPER sensitive to pressure changes and give you static (in only ONE ear - whichever is most affected) FAR too frequently. It's actually a tragedy. I'm not joking. These would be exquisite otherwise (even with the lacking sound adjustment). ***AFFILIATIONS:*** The one very interesting thing B&W gives you is a free trial to "Quobuz" to listen to very high quality audio from an extensive collection. The selection algorithm is terrible, though. Really, it's only good for your own manual selections. ***CONCLUSION:*** Something this expensive really needs to be "The Cadillac" of headphones. It isn't. ANC which can't handle pressure variations is Active Noise Creation, not Cancellation. Connection needs to be FLAWLESS - it isn't. Settings need to be ABUNDANT - they aren't.

I want to like this headphones but after having used this for two weeks , I am not convinced that this is an audiophlle quality headphones for the price.I will just wait fo the airpods max 2 release date.

These Bowers and Wilkins earbuds perform decently, not bad but not great either. Setup, pairing: Setting them up was a breeze. Put them into pairing mode and have your phone search for it. They paired immediately without any problems. Also, once the app is installed, I was able to add them as a new device, again without any problems. Sound quality: This is where some points are lost. They sound ok, not bad, but not great either. The sound, especially the mids and highs are not as clear as I was hoping. One part of the sound quality that is great is the bass, assuming you turn it all the way up on the EQ. This is a pleasant surprise since earbuds are small and typically have weak bass. Depending on the type of music you listen to, this might make up for it. The active noise cancellation is very disappointing to the point of almost being useless. I would say it eliminates background noise maybe 50% but is still very noticeable. It does not eliminate background voices at all. Honestly, the ANC in these is sort of pointless, so these are not for you if this feature is important. Call Quality: The call quality is good. I heard the other person perfectly clear, and they said the same for my voice. Answering and hanging up calls with the button works as expected. Case: The included case is small and easily fits in your pocket. The earbuds magnetically stay in place and are very easy to place in the case without any difficulty orienting them. There is an indicator to tell you that the case is charging and when it is done charging. It does not tell you when the earbuds are charging or when they are done. I do wish it told you when the earbuds are fully charged but this does not seem to be normal behavior for any earbuds. This may sound insignificant, but the case is a fingerprint magnet. After only touching it a few times, it is completely covered in fingerprints. Not necessarily important but it does make the case look ugly after a short time. Battery: The earbuds’ battery last around 7.5 hours, around as much as advertised and almost covers an entire day at work. The case allows charging the earbuds around two and a half times. It takes a couple of hours to charge the case and earbuds together from empty. I would say this is probably slightly better than average as other earbuds I have used don’t last the entire day at work. The case charges using the modern USB-C connector. App: The app works well but is as barebones as you can get. It basically allows you to turn on and off the noise cancellation, and has a two band EQ. That’s it. The treble EQ does change the highs but doesn’t really make it sound better. The bass EQ works great and as previously mentioned, turning it up all the way is almost a necessity. Other than allowing you to update the firmware, that is about it. Comfort: These are very comfortable, and they come with several size caps to fit different size ears. I have large ears, and the biggest size fits me great. They feel secure in your ears but do feel like they could fall out under the right conditions. Strangely enough, there is no fit check in the app which is included in every other earbuds I have used. A Big Problem: These earbuds will go into standby after only a few minutes. Take them out to talk to someone or go to the bathroom. Put them back on and they are off. While this is normal, you can usually set the time it takes to go into standby but not on these. Assume if you take them off for any reason, you will have to put them in the case and take them out to wake them up again. In summary, these earbuds are ok, not bad but not great either. The sound quality is decent (with outstanding bass) but the noise cancellation is almost non-existent. The battery performs very well. The standby time is a big problem. Overall, at this price point, there are probably better options out there.

Bowers & Wilkins made a name for themselves by building high end loudspeakers, so the Pi6 earbuds come to me with some high expectations. It sits about mid-level in their earbud line up and features the aptX bluetooth codec and 24-bit processing for a high fidelity connection. The earbuds are marketed to last 8 hours on a charge, which seems accurate so far. I can’t confirm the 24 hours of total battery life with the case, but that sounds reasonable. The case is compact and should fit in most pockets well. It charges quickly with USB-C, but I was surprised it doesn’t wirelessly charge, which almost seems standard at this product level in 2024. And this kind of foreshadows my general experience with the Pi6 earbuds. A mix of ups and downs. SOUND If you’re looking into Bowers & Wilkins earbuds you likely put an emphasis on sound quality. I wanted to like the Pi6 more, because the tone and response are well balanced, but I couldn’t get over how cramped the soundstage felt. It’s like I’m standing next to a speaker vs facing a stage, there’s no sense of air in-between. The vocals are smooth but they’re not crisp. I almost want to say they’re a little warm, but I’m not sure if that’s it. Out of the box, they sounded flat and I had to turn the bass up a good amount just to get it near where I like. The bass response is good from a sound quality standpoint, but it doesn’t kick. It’s musical enough for you to hear the details though. It’s the first time I’ve felt that earbuds needed to be broken in, because they sound better now after playing them for many hours than when I first put them on. What could probably help make them sound better is having more than only a bass and treble adjustment for the EQ, but I’ll get to the app shortcomings later. Overall, the Pi6 earbuds are well balanced and sound good, but not great. My biggest issue is how compact the soundstage feels, but some people might like that. And as with all earbuds, the ear tip fit will make or break the sound. I tried the larger ones to see if it would seal tighter and improve the bass, but it somehow reduced it. NOISE REDUCTION / CALL QUALITY Excellent on both fronts. The Pi6 features adaptive noise reduction that won’t completely drown out the background noise, but will turn them down to a whisper. The Pass-Through mode allows you to hear background noise without removing the earbuds and works well while wearing both or even just one earbud. It would be nice to be able to adjust the ANC or Pass-Through audio levels, but as of now you can only turn them on or off. Call quality sounds excellent with a natural tone. No complaints there. APP / CONTROLS The app is a big letdown. It’s the most disappointing part of the Pi6 experience and I sincerely hope Bowers & Wilkins gets it updated quickly. There are only 2 audio adjustments available in the EQ (bass and treble), there is no adjustment for the ANC or Pass-Through sound levels, the customizable touch controls only allow you to choose between 2 presets (ANC/Voice Assistant control or volume control), and the battery charge level doesn’t show the case charge level or individual earbuds either. Just one percentage for the whole thing, which became really confusing when my right earbud died but the app said it still had 13% charge. I also kept placing the earbuds in the case thinking it was charging them and it took me a while to realize the case was dead and the app didn’t even show the charge level for it. The app has a lot of room to grow and a software/firmware update could probably do a lot to make the Pi6 really shine. OVERALL The Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 earbuds sound good, but not great. It’s tonally balanced, but the bass lacks kick and the soundstage feels cramped. The app has very few customization options and the touch control buttons are not always responsive. I’ve tried many times to skip a song only for it to stop. But after all of the trouble, the more I listen to them, the more I like them. There’s potential here and I would love to see how a firmware and app update could improve them. PROS - Sounds good with correct size ear tips and eq tuning - Good adaptive noise canceling - Excellent call quality - aptX codec - 24-bit audio - Stays in ears well - Sounds better the more I listen (breaking in?) - Comfortable for long use - Good battery life - Compact charging case - Good pass-through mode - Stylish - Excellent range - Comes with 4 sizes of ear tips - Charges quickly - IP54 water and dust protection - 8 hours of earbud battery life - Supposed 24 hour battery life with case CONS - Vocals not crisp - Soundstage feels compact - Sounds flat out of the box - Bass lacks kick - Ear tip fit greatly affects sound quality - User EQ only has Bass and Treble adjustments - Only 2 options for touch control customization (ANC or volume) - Cannot adjust noise canceling or pass-through sound levels - Taps on touch controls do not always register - Random static sound - Limited app functionality - Does not show charging case charge level or individual earbud charge level - Case does not wirelessly charge - Apple Music not listed as Direct Streaming app - Expect a more polished product from Bowers & Wilkins

I love the sound of these when they’re working properly. They’re not even close to my Apple Air Pod Pro3’s as far as connectivity. They are so fussy with connectivity! I’m probably going to have to take them back and exchange them for another pair. That said, when they do work they sound unbelievable! As expected with a pair of $500 FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR EAR BUDS! AYFKM?! But, Bowers and Wilkins makes incredible stand alone speakers! I have several. Overall not too bad when it comes to fantastic sound quality. It’s unfortunate that BB doesn’t carry them in stock. Had to order these and now I’ll have to exchange them for another pair which will also have to be ordered.

If you use these for Music only then these are beyond superb but the real downside is connectivity and phone calls. When taking a phone call you sound far and muffled besides being disconnected.

These headphones are excellent. Great sound quality and beautiful color. But still nothing is perfect and 800 dollar headphones should be beyond expectations. The leather gets cracks after slight use in a year and the battery drains faster than expected. No doubt that you will feel like sitting in a hall listening life to Hans Zimmer music and what a quality. The price should be around 400

I have just bought a pair of Formation Duo speakers, and they sound really good. HOWEVER they will not connect reliably to my new LG OLED TV (although it would be Bluetooth, they would still sound way better than the TV speakers). Left or Right channels would occasional switch off of for a few seconds, and both would regularly drop out for half a second or so. The TV links very well to my headphones via Bluetooth, so it seemed as though the issue might be with the speakers. They will link to my phone OK and I can play music from it via Bluetooth. So I bought a TROND BT transmitter with a TosLink optical input and it has exactly the same issue with the speakers. I think it might be due to their lack of support for Low Latency aptX (at least I can't find that in the speakers specifications). So, although the sound is great, it seems ridiculous that BT speakers at this price have a flaky BT interface, rendering them unusable with my TV. B&W do not provide any support other than boilerplate questions, and their help line remains unanswered. Not impressed. Steve

I was in the market for another pair of wireless in ear. currently I own both bose ultra comfort, sony wfxm1005, and audiotechnic az100. This pair sound quality is a bit better than Bose, but far below audiotechnic. it lacks of vibrant, software interface is very unreliable. its fit is somewhat insecure in my ear.

Sound quality is great. But, there is a distortion in the right ear. I had to return them and am waiting on the new pair. It sounded like if you turn your radio up too loud. I tried uninstalling the app, repairing them and putting them in and out of the case. Nothing worked.

I can give you a plus for ultra fancy design. However, there are a couple of things they need to consider as work in process or room for improvement, especially for the price : *Noise cancellation is not quite there yet *Constant disconnection from my device *No Equalizer at all, not even the most basic presets such as Jazz, Concert Hall, Rock, etc. Only treble and bass? Not what was expecting. *Napa Leather? Not quite sure about that *Padding on Headband a little extra cushion please will be perfect considering parts of this stylish design are in metal. I try to like it, since want to give a step up from my Sony's, unfortunatelly the sound quality is very relevant for me and my expectations for these headphones were high up, based on reviews, sadly they will be return.

Good sound system, but lacks integration choices with no inputs available like fiber optical cable or RCA.

I had high hopes but quickly disappointed! I truly feel my pair were defective because the sound and noise cancelling were nowhere close to my Bose Ultra Quiet headphones I recently purchased. I had to increase the equalizer settings to their max to get any fidelity. I also tested the two pair with my TV sound in the background. With the Bose I could not hear any sound with the Bowers I was able to hear the voices, muffled, but still intelligible. I may try another pair in the future, but for now I’m sticking with Bose.

Very heavy ear cuffs. After prolonged wear it can affect your neck and shoulders. Also heavy on the VOC chemical smell, much like fresh paint.

Loud but the noise canceling leave a lot to be desired

These are probably the best in ear headphones I've ever heard/owned and they are beautiful and classy looking. I am definitely keeping these. Let me explain why I gave it 3 stars. It has nothing to do with the sound, but more with the connectivity and app performance. When I first paired these to my iPhone, I was prompted to update the firmware. Make sure you leave the earbuds in the case with the lid open so that it maintains connectivity. The used the default ear tips. Now, I'm coming from an AirPod Pro 2, so these are a bit big in my ear and I thought it would take time to get used to. Well, they sit so comfortably in my ear and I did not notice any added weight. I have not tried running with these so I can't comment on how well they stay in my ear, but I did not feel like they were slipping out like I've experienced with other earbuds. I did have an issue with sound coming out even though it shows that it's paired on my iPhone and on the app. I had to remove it from both and re-pair it again. With the first song that played, I can hear how clear and warm these are right out of the box. It has a 5 band EQ slider that I was able to play around with to get the sound I wanted. Over the 3 weeks that I've owned them, I've had issues where when I take 1 earbud out, the music is still playing. There have been times where I don't hear anything out of them. I've also had issues where the it shows connected on my bluetooth screen, but when I go to the app, it's not connected. I've had to remove and pair them again on multiple occasions. And just this last week, there was an update available that seems to have made it worse than before. I hope B&W resolves this quick, because I love the sound out of these and would hate to have to return them Now as far as the sound goes, with the 5 band EQ, you can customize it to your liking. The soundstage on them are fantastic and everything is so clear. These are good for all types of music, but you will see how well these fair with acoustic or songs in the rock/grunge category. For me, I've listened to the same songs on multiple occasions, but with these, I started to notice other sounds in that song that I've never heard before.

The Bowers and Wilkins Pi6 Earbuds fit in the ear comfortably (for me, anyway) and seem to hold in well. I had an older pair of over the ear headphones I loved from Bowers & Wilkins, so my expectations were high for these based on that. The sound quality on the Pi6 is very good, however, at the same price (as of this writing) you can find better quality (to my personal taste) sound earbuds from other companies. In comparison, I played back a few songs repeatedly through both the Pi6 and a similar priced alternate earbud, even repeatedly playing like the same 10 seconds of songs--- and both the bass and treble sounded better on the other ones. On the Pi6, I did go into the user equalizer settings and experimented with the treble and bass settings while music was playing, and while they had an effect, these earbuds seemed optimized for the middle (0 on treble and bass). Separate from sound quality, when I first set them up, they paired on both Bluetooth and the app connected them on Bluetooth Low Energy, and this resulted in repeated reconnection attempts between the two separate connections (Yes, Settings->Bluetooth on the phone showed two separate connection devices for the Pi6, which it was switching between). This meant that while I was listening to music, I'd continually hear the connection tones in the earbuds. Unpairing and repairing them manually seemed to fix that. After resolving that, one earbud continually cut out for a while. I then left them overnight in the charging case (being frustrated) in case the earbuds themselves had low batteries somehow. The next day they were fine, however after about 30 minutes use the right earbud did start to cut in and out again (they were fine for 20-30 minutes before that). I was somewhat disappointed in these, both because I had better expectations for the brand (based on previous use), and because of the difficulties with set-up and the earbuds cutting out a little too often.

The Pi6 True Wireless earbuds are my second product from Bowers & Wilkins, the first being their Px7 S2 over ear headphones and I’m torn. The buds connected to my phone without incident and immediately appeared in the app which was already installed from my previous headphones. Starting with the positive, the Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 earbuds sound amazing. Rich deep bass, crisp highs and solid midtones. The volume is the loudest I’ve seen in earbuds. The app does give you the option to adjust the sound with its equalizer but it only adjusts bass and treble. I like heavier bass and sliding it up a couple of notches was perfect for me. Noise cancellation is very strong and drowns out everything during my subway commute. Passthrough is decent enough to have a conversation when the volume is low but gets drowned out easily at higher volume levels. During phone conversations I was heard well with no background noise or sounding like I was in a tunnel. There is no side tone though so I found myself speaking a bit louder than normal conversation. Battery life is rated at 8 hours for the buds and an additional two charges in the case for up to 24 hours of playback time. Full charges take about 2 hours and there is a 15 minute quick charge that will get you a couple of hours of run time. I was disappointed that the app never showed the buds to have more than 93% charge, even after charging the case and buds. There is no option in the app to see the charge of the case, just the buds. Another disappointment is the lack of wireless charging. The buds come with four sizes of silicone tips but I struggled with finding a size that felt like it fit my ears correctly. Because of the design, the buds fit deep into your ear canal which is the only support keeping them in place. They never fell out but numerous times felt like I could hear around the seal. There is no fit test option in the app to verify a good seal. Once I found the best size tip the buds were pretty comfortable even after several hours of listening. The app does give you a couple of options but is pretty minimal in the settings. The buds chime to indicate changes in ANC and bluetooth pairing. I would have preferred voice prompts at this price point. The main page of the app is dedicated to various streaming services that offer higher quality streaming like Tidal and Deezer with the concept of being your one stop shop for enjoying your music. I did notice on several occasions that the app seemed to be disconnected from the buds even though they were still connected to the phone. The buds do offer touch control but unlike most of the previous earbuds I’ve tried, you have to choose between ANC/Voice Assistant or volume control. They also offer playback and call control. I struggle recommending the Pi6 earbuds. The sound is excellent but at this price point, they are playing in the premium space but lack many of the more premium features like multi-band equalizer, wireless charging, touch control options and lack of voice feedback prompts. If you are looking for great sounding earbuds, the Pi6 is worth considering but from a value perspective, I feel there are better options available. I give the Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 three stars and unfortunately, would not recommend them to most people.